[quote]jsbrook wrote:
Poliquin advocates everything in high doses and everything to an extreme. He may be right [and probably often is[ that these doses are most effective. He is not right that lesser doses don’t have any benefit. Not with BCAAs and probably not with other of his supplement endorsements either.
I’ve used high dose BCAAs. And lower dose. I’ve benefited from only 16g of BCAAs a day. And there’s plenty of other people who’ve also taken lower doses who’ve felt that it’s helped them add or maintain muscle and improved recovery. [/quote]
Again, I don’t know anything about BCAAs, so I’m not arguing with you. I’m always skeptical of reports that a low dosage of something “helped.” I like things to be measurable. If something “improved recovery,” e.g., I would want to know how many more workouts per year that translated too. Most guys just say, “I recovered better.”
Also, there are so many other factors that it’s hard to know what works. I’ll see guys posting on the forum who are taking 5 or 6 different supplements. If someone is taking Alpha Male, Spike, Power Drive, and BCAAs, what is working?
My own view is to take only one supplement at a time - and usually for a long-enough time frame to see what happens.
What I like about the high dosage recommendation is that if it works, it will be dramatic. Poliquin claims 9 lbs., but he is prone to hyperbole. Still, whatever happens should be something I’ll notice.
Incidentally, I am trying the high dose because, on a whim, I tried his mega-dose of fish oil (which I thought was b.s.). I have been dropping fat like crazy since doing so. I put my wife on it (who has little fat to lose and thus hit a plateau), and she has been dropping like like crazy after a couple of weeks of nothing. I have no idea why it works, but it does. Same with BCAAs.